


Bodyguard

by Severina



Category: Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Community: hc_bingo, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-30
Updated: 2013-12-30
Packaged: 2018-01-06 19:39:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1110740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Severina/pseuds/Severina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He watched as Beth's hand went instinctively to the knife on her belt.  "You taught me that," she said.  She smiled up at him.  "But I like having you here regardless.  I like it when you guard my body."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bodyguard

**Author's Note:**

> Four years post Season Four. Written for LJ's hc_bingo for the prompt "bodyguard".
> 
> * * *

Beth opened the gate to the compound, let Judith and Harry skip out ahead of her.

"Berry picking?" Louisa called out.

Beth shaded her eyes to look up at the woman on the watchtower. "Among other things," she said.

"See you got your bodyguard with you," Emma said.

Daryl sniffed, clanged the gate shut behind them. 

"Don't pay her any mind," Beth told him as they headed out. But he still walked a few feet away from her, had to force himself not to look back to see whether Emma was watching them as they headed out.

Within a hundred yards he relaxed when the woods enveloped them, the shade of the trees blocking out the harsh afternoon sunlight, bringing with it a welcome respite from the heat and humidity. Daryl swiped the back of his hand over his brow while Beth let the kids run a few yards ahead, always keeping a watchful eye on their backs. 

"Don't spend my time payin' attention to what that bitch talks about," he finally said.

"She's just jealous."

"Just ain't no bodyguard," Daryl groused.

"Well, you kind of are," Beth said. "I watch the kids and make sure nothing happens to them, and you watch the woods and make sure nothing creeps up on us. It's sort of a bodyguard."

"You can take care of yourself," Daryl reminded her.

He watched as Beth's hand went instinctively to the knife on her belt. "You taught me that," she said. She smiled up at him. "But I like having you here regardless. I like it when you guard my body."

Daryl shifted uneasily at her playful tone. It was one thing to whisper shit like that in the middle of the night, alone in their room. It was something completely different when the sun was shining and anyone could hear. Didn't matter that they were out in the middle of the goddamn woods with nobody around but a couple of five year olds.

Beth's smile only got wider when she saw how uncomfortable he looked. "Why Mr. Dixon," she drawled, "I do believe you're blushing."

Daryl shook his head, stalked a few feet away. Sometimes just looking at her messed with his head, and he was pretty damn sure she could get him to do whatever she asked by doing nothing more than batting those big blue eyes. Nobody'd ever had that effect on him before, and he spent half his days feeling twitchy and awkward and the other half feeling like he was walking on a damn cloud. It was fucking confusing.

"You think you know somethin', girl," he began, looking over at her grinning face, but whatever he'd planned to say melted from his tongue when he saw the movement in the trees behind her. "Walkers!" 

Beth eyes widened. "Kids! Down!" she hissed.

Daryl didn't look to make sure that Judith and Harry dropped their baskets and took cover. He had to have faith that he and Beth had drilled them well enough, because he had his hands full. 

The trio of walkers were fresh, their wounds only days old. He had a scattered moment to wonder where in the hell they came from before the walkers were upon them, and he was caught up in a flurry of action. His knife slid cleanly into the skull of the first, and he spun on his heel, elbowed the second walker away into a clump of bushes. He had a brief glimpse of Harry's frightened face among the clumps of bright red berries before he was reaching into the brush and fisting his hand into the fabric of the walker's T-shirt, pulling him back out and away from the kid. The walker's teeth snapped together inches from his cheek and he flung the geek forward, bowling him into the remaining walker and sending them both crashing down to the dirt. He shifted his knife to his left hand, grunted when it buried itself to the hilt into the nearest walker eye socket. The third geek was still pinned beneath the other, one arm reaching out feebly to snag at his arm, and Daryl shifted again, tugged the knife from the eye socket and ignored the viscous slime that dripped down his hand when he embedded it into the skull of the last walker.

He gasped for breath, leaned back on his haunches and looked around the clearing. "Beth," he called out. "Get the ki—"

The walker took him by surprise, flying out of the bushes on his left. Daryl grunted as he was bowled over onto his ass, his knife flying from his grip. He barely had time to get his arm up to block the walker's throat and avert his face from the snapping teeth, his other hand scrambling through the dirt to find something to use to defend himself. A rock, a damn stick, anything. He came up empty, and the walker was big, fresh and strong and surprisingly spry for a damn dead man, and he only hoped that there weren't any more of them, that Beth and the kids would run for the camp, that—

The walker slumped forward, watery eyes suddenly clouding over. Daryl pushed up and over with his arm, slid quickly out from beneath the dead body.

Beth stood over him, grinning and wiping the blood from her knife onto the hem of her shirt. "Now who's the bodyguard?" she asked.

He might get embarrassed when Beth teased him, or stiffen up and feel like every eye was on them when she slipped her hand into his when they walked across the compound. But some things were just self-evident, and when you felt them there was just no sense in denying them.

"I love you," Daryl said.

"Well, duh," Judith said, hands on her hips.

"Can we go now?" Harry asked, making a face. "These walkers are smelly."

Daryl let Harry and Judith pull him to his feet, gathered up his bow and knife and kept a watchful eye as they trekked back out of the woods. But when they reached the clearing and safety, he happily let Beth take his hand.


End file.
